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Andrés Duany lays out the principles of Lean Urbanism, with its seven platforms of Lean Building, Lean Development, Lean Business, Lean Green, Lean Regulation, Lean Infrastructure, and Lean Learning, to an audience of architects and planners in Miami. Thanks to the Lean Urbanism Initiative (www.leanurbanism.org) for permission to film and post this video.

Tidal flooding is the worst it's ever been in South Beach. Ten years ago when I moved here, nobody ever mentioned tidal flooding. Now, it's getting worse all the time as sea levels rise. While the politicians fiddle, South Beach floods.

To be clear, the city says it's a storm drainage problem, and that their new pipes will fix it. But when sea level is higher than the streets, there's nothing a pipe can do.

This is the entire lightning-paced joint session I did with Clay Chapman at CNU21 Unsacntioned at the Peery Hotel in Salt Lake City. I covered the big picture of the Original Green at the blistering pace of just over 5 slides per minute… first time I've ever done that. And Clay closed out with the awesome work that he's doing to pull off the unthinkable: build a loadbearing masonry house designed to last a thousand years, and do it at a cost that regular people can afford. The first one was around $150 per square foot, but he believes he can get it down to $85 per square foot soon. This changes everything!

A special thanks to Justin Burslie of the StrongTowns Network and to StrongTowns founder Chuck Marohn for filming the presentation! Please be sure to visit their StrongTowns Network, where you'll find some of the most vibrant and incisive discussions on sustainable urbanism taking place today.

Building "maintenance-free" is an illusion. When so-called maintenance-free items fail, they fail catastrophically so that you have to rip all of the mess off and cart it off to the landfill. The high standard should be materials that can be patched and repaired, as I explain in this sub-2-minute conversation with Chuck Marohn of StrongTowns University.

This 3-minute clip with Chuck Marohn of StrongTowns University highlights the dangers of framing everything within a Gimo Green view. Gizmo Green is the proposition that we can achieve sustainability with better equipment and better materials. Gizmo Green is a part of the solution, but only a small part.

Standard of living focuses on how much we've got, while quality of life focuses on how good we have it, as discussed in this 2-minute clip with Chuck Marohn of StrongTowns University. Bigger vs. better. When one goes up, the other goes down… it's just simple economics.

Sustainable architecture is possible only when we're allowed to share wisdom broadly. Unfortunately, as I discuss with Chuck Marohn of StrongTowns University, we have burdened the profession of architecture with the necessity of uniqueness. Your work is expected to be your own unique creation if you expect to get published in the architectural magazines. But if you're not allowed to use other people's good ideas, then truly sustainable practices cannot spread broadly. This is one of the most important dilemmas in architecture today.

Living traditions are proven methods of spreading the wisdom of sustainable construction. They have spread sustainability broadly from the beginning of human history, until we gave them up and all became specialists over a span of several decades nearly a century ago, as I discuss with Chuck Marohn of StrongTowns University.

Chuck Marohn of StrongTowns University and I talk about the problem with experts and specialists in this sub-3-minute clip. Actually, it's not a problem that we have specialists, but when everybody becomes one, it leaves a tremendous common sense vacuum because specialists focus on narrower and narrower bands of practice, leaving the wider view unconsidered.

Here's a 4-minute clip I did with Chuck Marohn for StrongTowns University on the importance of lovable buildings. If a building can't be loved, it won't last. It's carbon footprint means nothing once its parts have been carted off to the landfill.

Sustainability targets are nothing more than wishes if someone else sets them up for you, as Chuck Marohn of StrongTowns University and I discuss in this sub-2-minute clip. Targets only have meaning when they are my targets for me, not my targets for you.

This 4½-minute clip with Chuck Marohn of StrongTowns University tells the story of a fascinating recent discovery in Rose Town, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Kingston, Jamaica, that I believe provides crucial insights into how we might re-start living traditions.

City growth since World War II has been almost exclusively outward, leapfrogging at breakneck speed into the countryside. But while nature limits physical growth in every creature, many other types of growth can occur… things can grow smarter, better, etc., not just bigger. Thanks to Chuck Marohn of StrongTowns University for filming these episodes!

Buildings that can be used for only one thing aren't likely to last for very long. Building uses come and go all the time… telephone exchanges didn't exist just over a century ago, whereas indoor shopping malls are quickly becoming obsolete even as we watch. Chuck Marohn of StrongTowns Network and I discuss the details in this 2½-minute clip.

I tell Chuck Marohn of StrongTowns Network the story of nourishable places in this 2¼-minute clip. In a nutshell, if people can't eat there, they can't live there. Today, we can ship food in from all around the world, but that may not always be true as energy costs rise. And today, more people are celebrating the virtues of local food.

If architecture were nothing more than fashion and style, it would be impossible to design buildings that would be loved by future generations because we have no idea what fashions will be like even just a few quarters into the future, much less in the lives of our descendants. But as I discussed with Chuck Marohn of StrongTowns University in this clip, there are things we can do to stack the desk in our buildings' favor, giving them a much greater chance of survival long into an uncertain future.

If you want to be a significant architect today, your work must be largely unique. Isn't that a good thing? Doesn't it spur inventiveness and creativity? Yes, but there are huge sustainability problems which I discuss here with Chuck Marohn of StrongTowns University.

What's best for a hotel isn't necessarily what's best for the sidewalk in an urban setting. Yet hotels clearly belong in the city, because the travelers' destinations are most often somewhere nearby in the city. This clip examines these issues, and looks at a surprise South Beach solution at the end.

Here's my interview with Nathan Norris of PlaceMakers for First + Main Media's Daily Show at CNU19 in Madison, Wisconsin. Nathan talks about the remarkable resilience of the John Nolen plan for Madison in this discussion.

Here's my interview with Howard Blackson of PlaceMakers for First + Main Media's Daily Show at CNU19 in Madison, Wisconsin. Howard discusses the increasing role played within the New Urbanism by NextGen, an organization of mostly younger New Urbanists whose involvement with the movement began well after its founding.

Here's my interview with Galina Tachieva of DPZ for First + Main Media's Daily Show at CNU19 in Madison, Wisconsin. Galina describes her Sprawl Repair initiative and her new book, the Sprawl Repair Manual in this interview.

You don't need an SUV to drive to the grocery store and bring home a week's worth of rations when you live or work close enough to the grocery that you can walk there to buy groceries for each meal. Get a bit of exercise. And get fresher food.

Solar panels shouldn't be put on the roof... they should BE the roof, or at least a part of it. The only thing we're missing if we want to do this today is panels that can be adjusted at the edge to match any size of roof.